About

Harry Ransom CentennialBirthday Celebration

Friends, colleagues and former students of Harry Ransom gathered in November 2008 to honor Ransom on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The event, hosted by Ransom Center Director Thomas F. Staley, featured distinguished speakers including The University of Texas at Austin President William Powers Jr., Dr. Hans Mark, The Honorable William P. Hobby, Mr. Lowell Lebermann, Dr. Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth, Mr. Frank Denius and Dr. Larry R. Faulkner. The speakers shared favorite memories of Ransom while a video, Harry Huntt Ransom: A Celebration, conveyed some of Ransom's career highlights and major accomplishments at the Harry Ransom Center.

The program also featured a musical performance by Robert Freeman, professor of music and former Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Michael Schneider, graduate student in the College of Fine Arts, and Icy Simpson, Harrington Fellow in the College of Fine Arts who sang three of Dr. Ransom's favorite songs.

In appreciation of the enormous contributions made by Harry Ransom to higher education, American libraries, and the establishment of an internationally renowned humanities center in Texas, friends of Ransom have established a special fund to honor him on his 100th birthday. The Harry Ransom Centennial Fund for Curatorial Excellence will enable the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin to:

establish a curator's fund for acquisitions of important materials, following Ransom's broad practice of collecting in literature, photography, art, film, and the performing arts

assist with the recruitment, retention, and support of a well-informed and highly professional curatorial staff

provide resources to bring visiting curators to collaborate with the Center's staff on exhibitions, programs, and collection management.